A teenager has been denied boarding a plane by Ryanair despite him having five months left on his passport. He was complying with all of the new and complex Brexit travel rules.
Zak Schoneville, 15, was due to fly out to Tenerife on Monday, May 2 with his family. His parents Lisa and Neil along with Zak's sister Lilly arrived at Glasgow Prestwick airport at 4am ahead of their 6.10am flight.
However when they went to board the plane they were told that they would not be flying. Ryanair claimed that Zak's passport had expired even though it had five months left on it, reports The Mirror.
His passport was issued back in March 2017 and it has an expiry date of October 31 2022. It meets the current European Union requirements of being less than 10 years old and having at least three months' validity on the passenger's return date.
The passport is legal for travel in Spain and all other EU nations up to 31 July this year. But Ryanair told Zak it had already expired.
Mum Lisa Schoneville told The Independent : "He explained this was due to Brexit and that passports were only valid for five or 10 years from the date of issue.
“We didn't want to cause a scene at the check in desk so we left and sat down to research this further. We couldn't find any information on this rule, and could only find the information stated about the 10-year passport rule."
This is the EU requirement that British passports are less than 10 years old on the day of travel to Europe. All children's passports, which are valid for a maximum of five years and nine months, automatically meet this requirement.
Ms Schoneville said: "We asked on numerous occasions for links to websites but were never provided with any physical evidence. They told us they had called 'Ryanair Immigration' and they advised them to refuse our travel.
"We asked them to call again in front of us so we could hear what they had to say. 'Ryanair Immigration' confirmed we were not allowed to travel."
Back home in Motherwell they called Ryanair again and were told that Zak needed six months on his passport prior to travelling to the EU and three months on his passport for travelling back to the UK. However these requirements are incorrect.
Speaking on passport validity, a statement said: "Ryanair complies with all European Commission travel regulations and passengers travelling between the EU and the UK after the end of the transition period must have a passport that is not valid for more than 10 years."
Last week easyJet became the last major UK airline to adopt the correct European rules on passport validity. The carrier is now paying compensation to passengers who were wrongly denied boarding.
